Stocks wobble but stay flat after S&P announcement

NEW YORK (AP) - The Standard & Poor's ratings agency said yesterday that it's getting more optimistic about the U.S. economy. But investors just yawned.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Standard & Poor’s ratings agency said yesterday that it’s getting more optimistic about the U.S. economy. But investors just yawned.

Stocks budged higher when trading opened, shortly after the S&P agency raised its outlook for the U.S. government’s debt rating and credited “the strengths of the economy.” But the gains proved both modest and fickle, and the market spent most of the day flitting between small gains and losses.

The Dow closed down 9.53 points at 15,238.59. The S&P 500 index was essentially flat, falling 0.57 points to 1,642.81. The Nasdaq composite edged up 4.55 points to 3,473.77. It was a marked change from Friday, when the Dow jumped 207 points after a jobs report that investors viewed as positive.

The S&P’s statement hearkened back to August 2011, when the agency slashed its rating of the U.S. government’s debt because Congress was in a heated battle over whether to raise government-spending limits. The downgrade, an embarrassment to the U.S., also sent the stock market into a tailspin. The Dow plunged 634 points, or more than 5 percent, on the first trading day after the downgrade. The market had triple-digit swings throughout that fall.